The middle of nowheresville

Dear readers,

I am writing from a cabin in Kentucky. Amy Brown and I met halfway between Birmingham and Detroit at Natural Bridge State Park. Whenever we really miss each other, we always joke about hopping in our cars and meeting in the middle. Well, we actually did just that with a slight bit of advance planning.
Now, being that it is March (the wettest month of the year and the least popular month for matrimony according to my parents who were married in March), we decided against camping and instead rented a cottage. I was expecting to still rough it a little bit, but no, baby, we have the hookup. We are in cottage #206 overlooking the valley and we have a den, kitchen, bathroom, and 2 queen size beds all to ourselves complete with TV and dishwasher. We are living like queens.




So, Amy and I got up this morning bound and determined to go hiking in spite of possible rain. Okay, not possible, absolute. But, we packed our little lunch, filled our water bottles and headed off like troopers. Please see the attached photo of us just heading out. Ah, the optimism is amazing and the conversation endless. Well, it started to sprinkle just a bit about a mile into the hike. Nothing much, pleasant even. About mile 1.25 it started to rain. Really rain. The drench your jeans and re-wash your hair kind of rain. But, never be ones to turn back, we headed on. Oh yes, we headed on through the rain for the next 8.75 miles at which point we exited the woods at a completely different place than where we had entered.
Just a note to say, that while wet, the hike was still enjoyable. There is really nothing I needed more than a day out of doors with no phone calls and nothing abstract to ponder about the psychological mind. Plus, I was hiking with one of my dearest friends who allows me to be the truest version of myself with no fear and zero apologies. There is absolute, gorgeous freedom in that and I am truly grateful.
I digress. So, we had two options. Walk back to the car or walk back to the cabin. In order to avoid the main highway, we start walking back to the cabin to come up with a solution for the car later. Thankfully, we passed the activities center and I asked (begged rather) the nice man if we could please ride in the back of his truck to our car. Now, I do realize that we were sort of hitchhiking, which I do not endorse. However, after 10 miles of hiking in the rain and a strong desire for my drink of choice, diet Sunkist, and a simple hope to stay off the highway and preserve my life, I asked. Normally, the fact that I am 25 and decently good looking gets me a long way in getting help if I need it. However, today I went with the drowned-rat, please-feel-sorry for me look. Thankfully, it worked.

We proceeded to hop in the back of the pickup and the man went racing down the highway (still raining mind you) until we showed up at our car. Thankfully, by this point, all inhibitions about getting my new car dirty were gone and we hopped in the car and cranked the heat and went back to the cottage.
So, now I sit here on the couch after 2 hours of trying to re-warm my body and I am finally toasty once again.
What a good day it has been.
My father told me once that I expect life to be too exciting. I don’t think I do. I expect myself to fully experience life each day. Hiking in the rain with my best bud and having great stories to tell later is exciting. To me at least.